Harper’s pre-election shift: Goodbye economy, hello security

Viewers at home may have been confused by Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s campaign-style announcement of sweeping new measures on national security Friday but with the the government’s stewardship of the economy battered as an election issue by crashing oil prices, it seems “Jihadism, Jihadism, Jihadism” is the new “Job, Jobs, Jobs.”

“I don’t think Stephen Harper wants us not to be afraid, I think he wants us to be afraid and then almost any kind of policies can be pushed through,” Green Party Leader Elizabeth May told iPolitics Friday. “And of course, with an election coming, it’s clear he would like it to be fought on the grounds of who do you see as being tough on terrorism, as opposed to the economy or how many people are unemployed.”

Liberal public safety critic and former solicitor general Wayne Easter concurred.

“When you look at that backdrop, I have to ask the question – is the Prime Minister more concerned with the political optics or the implementing of national terrorist legislation?” asked Easter. “That bothers me, because it was a joke. It was a performance. We’re talking about legislation here, that is to protect the safety of Canadians. This is not the kind of thing to get into a showcase on.”

The NDP strayed as far away from the political bait as possible Friday. Throughout the week, while hints at the newly expanded powers slipped out, the focus by the NDP has been on the economy and the middle class.

When it came to commenting on the new legislation and the struggle of balancing civil liberties — especially privacy — and security, NDP Leader Tom Mulcair played it safe.

“It’s important to be able to protect our rights at the same time as we’re protecting our safety,” said Mulcair. “We are capable of doing both at the same time and we’ll make sure that this bill ensures that, and we’ll ask the appropriate questions.”

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau was equally careful.

“Obviously we’ll have to make sure as we dig into the details of what is in this piece of legislation that there are adequate safeguards and oversights and that’s what the Liberal party’s been calling for,” said Trudeau.

“Violent jihadism is not just a danger somewhere else,” Prime Minister Stephen Harper told a fired-up political crowd in Richmond Hill, Ont. on Friday.

“It seeks to harm us here in Canada — in our cities and in our neighbourhoods, through horrific acts, like deliberately driving a car at a defenceless man or shooting a soldier in the back as he stands on guard at a War Memorial.”

Canadians “are targeted by these terrorists for no other reason than that we are Canadians. They want to harm us because they hate our society and the values it represents.”

In a clear jab at civil liberties advocates, Harper quipped that “violent jihadism “is not a human right.” “It is an act of war,” he said, “and our government’s new legislation fully understands that difference.”

The new legislation gives CSIS unprecedented new powers to “disrupt” terrorist plots, wage cyberwar against certain websites, keep suspected terrorists from flying and make it a criminal offence to encourage someone to stage a terrorist attack.

Only May’s Green Party, which while gaining ground in the polls — especially in British Columbia — has only two MPs and everything to gain by being vocal in opposition, has taken a hard line.

“I think they have the tools, that they don’t even use all of the tools that they have, but that this sweeping new bill has more to do with the politics than with actually stopping terrorism,” said May.

“I also saw the PMO 24/7 video,” she added. “It’s very efficient, very effective propaganda to scare the hell out of people.”

Hopefully E. May, T. Mulcair and J. Trudeau will insist on scheduled oversights concerning this new anti-terror bill. There”s a wedge issue for the opposition, Mr. Harper will never relinquish direct control of this bill, so while the opposition parties can support it with oversights Harper will look like he is not willing to be open and transparent with Canadians. Harper has just painted himself into another corner, as usual.

A false emphasis on security is very bad for business. Just-in-time deliveries from southern Ontario to the northern US are vulnerable to border alerts, slowdowns, increased checks, and so on. And when private security firms come to help, who is watching the watchers? The incident on Parliament Hill points to failures to enforce existing rules, and a growing failure to help those who can’t cope with the existing world. New rules? They seem to come without funding, so the cops have to choose between analyzing more privacy downloads and watching the street.

Must be something wrong with me. I’m not at all frightened but I am damn furious. My father didn’t fight in WWll just so we could have our freedoms and liberties stripped away by what he fought against.

The Harper dictatorship is running at full speed the torpedoes be damned. This law is so full of holes one could drive a ruck through it and it won’t stand up other than being an election piece for the cons.

Why Are Premiers Avoiding the Fair Tax Issue?The tax system has been the the elephant in any room where Canada’s premiers have met over the past three years. They talk education, health, climate change – all issues that need public investment and revenues. But despite pleas from voters, tax advocates even tax experts – they avoid having the conversation.

The CRA collects tax revenues for the majority of the provinces. Its work has been compromised by thousands of loopholes, laid off auditors and an anemic attempt at tracking the $178B of Canadian money that is sitting offshore. It costs provincial revenues billions. Those are billions that could be spent on gearing up child care plans, supporting seniors home care and the myriad of other responsibilities that fall to the provinces.

Ontario, BC and Quebec have started some of the hard work of turning a broken tax system around – there’s still a long way to go. All Canadians deserve to know that corporations and the super-wealthy are paying their fair share.

Premiers are failing their voters by letting revenues slip out of their provinces. Letting the Harper government off the hook about the current fiasco at the CRA makes them partners in bad fiscal stewardship. Tax reform may not be on this meeting’s agenda and neither will Alberta’s premier. But here’s hoping that at the very least someone tells Premier Jim Prentice how much Albertans are losing each year to tax loopholes and havens. It might help him with his sales tax problems.